Groupwise non-rigid image alignment is a difficult non-linear optimization problem involving many parameters and often large datasets. Previous methods have explored various metrics and optimization strategies. Good results have been previously achieved with simple metrics, requiring complex optimization, often with many unintuitive parameters that require careful tuning for each dataset. In this chapter, the problem is restructured to use a simpler, iterative optimization algorithm, with very few free parameters. The warps are refined using an iterative Levenberg-Marquardt minimization to the mean, based on updating the locations of a small number of points and incorporating a stiffness constraint. This optimization approach is eff

Background: Pregnancy is considered a major risk factor for development and progression of periodontal disease. There are hormonal changes in both estrogen and progesterone hormones in addition to bacterial effect and poor oral hygiene that will enhance development of periodontal disease in pregnant women. Materials and methods: Seventy subjects were enrolled in the study, the subjects with an age range (20-35) years old without any history of systemic disease. The subjects were divided into 20 non-pregnant women they represent the control group (G I), 30 pregnant women with gingivitis (GII) and 20 pregnant women with periodontitis (GIII).All periodontal parameters (plaque index, gingival index, bleeding on probing, probing pocket depth an

SAGD is a thermal recovery process in which steam oil ratio, SOR, is a key parameter that can affect the economic outcome of the process. Reservoirs with underlying or overlying lean bitumen present challenges for SAGD as they can act as a heat sink. Water has higher heat capacity than the bitumen and thus requires more steam to heat up the reservoir leading to higher SOR. The potential outcome of operating SAGD in these conditions may be lower bitumen rate and higher steam injection rate, both of which affect plant throughput and thus the economic matrix of SAGD. This paper looks at the performance of SAGD process in the presence of top lean bitumen. It will examine the theoretical CSOR that is needed to produce the bitumen with different

Catalytic reforming of naphtha occupies an important issue in refineries for obtaining high octane gasoline and aromatic compounds, which are the basic materials of petrochemical industries. In this study, a novel of design parameters for industrial continuous catalytic reforming reactors of naphtha is proposed to increase the aromatics and hydrogen productions. Improving a rigorous mathematical model for industrial catalytic reactors of naphtha is studied here based on industrial data applying a new kinetic and deactivation model. The optimal design variables are obtained utilizing the optimization process in order to build the model with high accuracy and such design parameters are then applied to get the best configuration of this pro

The recent development in statistics has made statistical distributions the focus of researchers in the process of compensating for some distribution parameters with fixed values and obtaining a new distribution, in this study, the distribution of Kumaraswamy was studied from the constant distributions of the two parameters. The characteristics of the distribution were discussed through the presentation of the probability density function (p.d.f), the cumulative distribution function (c.d.f.), the ratio of r, the reliability function and the hazard function. The parameters of the Kumaraswamy distribution were estimated using MLE, ME, LSEE by using the simulation method for different sampling sizes and using preli

        The performance of asphalt concrete pavement has affected by many factors, the temperature is the most important environmental one which has a large effect on the structural behavior of flexible pavement materials. The main cause of premature failure of pavement is the rutting, Due to the viscoelastic nature of the asphalt cement, rutting is more pronounced in hot climate areas because the viscosity of the asphalt binder which is
inversely related to rutting is significantly reduced with the increase in temperature resulting in a more rut susceptible paving mixtures. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of temperatures variations on the permanent deformation parameters (perm

Some degree of noise is always present in any electronic device that
transmits or receives a signal . For televisions, this signal i has been to s the
broadcast data transmitted over cable-or received at the antenna; for digital
cameras, the signal is the light which hits the camera sensor. At any case, noise
is unavoidable. In this paper, an electronic noise has been generate on
TV-satellite images by using variable resistors connected to the transmitting cable
. The contrast of edges has been determined. This method has been applied by
capturing images from TV-satellite images (Al-arabiya channel) channel with
different resistors. The results show that when increasing resistance always
produced higher noise f

ABSTRACT Background: Bracket rebonding is a common problem in orthodontics which may result in many drawbacks. The aims of this study were to evaluate the effects of application of two enamel protective agents “Icon” and “ProSeal” on shear bond strength before and after rebonding of stainless steel orthodontic brackets using conventional orthodontic adhesive and to assess the site of bond failure. Materials and methods: Fifty sound extracted human upper first premolar teeth were selected and randomly divided into two equal groups; the first time bonding and the rebonding groups (n=30). Each group was subdivided into control, Icon and ProSeal subgroups. The enamel protective agents were applied after etching (precondi

Background: Bisphosphonates are potent inhibitors of osteoclastic bone resorption and widely used for the treatment of osteoporosis, and osteogenesis imperfecta in children. Clinical and experimental studies have demonstrated that Bisphosphonates delay or inhibit tooth eruption. This study tries to focus on the effect of bisphosphonate on teeth development and jaw bones growth. Materials and methods: The present study includes 65 neonatal rats during lactation period from 15 Albino Wister rats mother. Alendronate (one type of Bisphosphonates) was administrated orally (15 mg/kg) into 10 pregnant rats two times a week, while other 5 rats regard as control. Then the neonatal rats sacrificed in I, 6, 11, 16 and 21 days. The lower first molar we

Thin films of (CdO)x (CuO)1-x (where x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5) were prepared by the pulsed laser deposition. The CuO addition caused an increase in diffraction peaks intensity at (111) and a decrease in diffraction peaks intensity at (200). As CuO content increases, the band gap increases to a maximum of 3.51 eV, maximum resistivity of 8.251x 104 Ω.cm with mobility of 199.5 cm2 / V.s, when x= 0.5. The results show that the conductivity is ntype when x value was changed in the range (0 to 0.4) but further addition of CuO converted the samples to p-type.